


Kept in the Dark

by geeelatinnn



Category: SixTONES (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Bickering, M/M, Romance, Secrets, friends - Freeform, idk what to put on tags help me?, tags will show up as the story progresses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:47:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27400702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/geeelatinnn/pseuds/geeelatinnn
Summary: When the headmaster of the school tasked them to plan out a whole year of student activities, the day class and night class student council members didn't think it would be a challenge. But, they had to do it in a shared house and finish everything in a span of a month. Hokuto, the only one who seems to take things seriously, tries to band together this group of six. In between planning sessions and simply having a fun summer, Hokuto finds something that maybe he should not have known in the first place.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24





	1. Summer Assignment

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome to another one of my multi-chaptered fiasco~ If you're familiar with my works you probably already know that I'm a sucker for University AUs so here's another one!
> 
> I hope the first chapter captures your interest enough to stick around for the next updates for this.

Taiga stared up at the night sky filled with twinkling stars, raising up his hand and closed his fist, pretending that he was catching one of the stars up above. He closed his eyes, taking in the quietness that surrounded him. He liked how the cold night breeze felt on his skin. This was the only place at campus that he felt at peace, no one really comes up at the rooftop that often. At least not the rooftop of the music department's building. Not a lot of students of the music department chose the night class anyway, compared to the population of the day class that is.

"I knew you'd be here." Juri said as he sat beside him. "Do you want some?" He offered Taiga the chocolate in his hand.

Taiga sat up. "Where'd you get the chocolate?" He took a bite off of the chocolate while Juri held it.

"Your desk." Juri chuckled. "There was so much there you wouldn't even notice if one or two pieces were taken."

Taiga sighed. "When are you going to stop going through my stuff?"

"You'd share them with me eventually when we get back to our dorm." Juri ate the chocolate bar in his hand. "Maybe you should tell your fangirls that you like boys or let's spread a rumor that you and I are dating." He playfully ruffled Taiga’s hair, trying to get some sort of reaction from him.

"Those are two seriously problematic things: admitting the first one might actually make them like me better because yaoi is pretty popular in our class and the second one will have us both expelled because roommates having a relationship is a taboo for the school." Taiga swatted off Juri’s hand, not even meeting the other’s eye while talking as he still looked towards the stars in the night sky.

"Lighten up, Taiga." Juri nudged him by the shoulder.

"There you are." Kochi came out of the door, his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. "I've been looking all over for the two of you. The headmaster wants to speak to us."

Taiga grunts. “What’s it about?”

Juri stood up and stretched out his hand to help Taiga up.

Kouchi raised his shoulders. “I have no idea. All he said was he needed to talk to us.”

* * *

"As newly elected student council members. The three of you, along with the other three from the day class will be spending a month of your summer vacation at this place." The headmaster handed each of them a folder. "Everything is free of charge and you can leave anytime you want as long as you go back to the mansion at night."

The three boys scanned through the document that was just given to them. It had pictures of the place and a list of all the utilities available. They were free to ask whatever food or other supplies or requests they would want to be provided for the whole month that they would be staying in that mansion. They all knew there was no way for them to go out of the mansion and be back at night as the location was in an unfamiliar place to them and a car would only be provided on their first way there and on the day that they would come home, with the exception of emergencies.

"You are not actually obliged to stay for the whole month. All six of you could leave earlier provided that you all arrive at a concrete plan for student activities for the whole coming academic year." The head teacher continued. "You may request anything you might need. Do you have any questions?"

"None so far." Taiga spoke up on behalf of their group. "This document you gave us is pretty much detailed enough and explained what we need to get done along with the morning class student council."

"I only attached a photo along with their names there because I think it will be better if you all get to know each other in person."

"We understand."

"That's all. You may go back to your class."

The three boys bowed in respect before going out of the room. In the hallway, Kochi and Jui walked behind Taiga. A little nervous about what might be running in Taiga's mind. Taiga stopped in his tracks and the two boys stopped as well.

"Juri." Taiga turned around. "This is all your fault."

Juri nervously chuckled. "I know we ended up running for council because of my joke. But we won, that means people actually trust us!"

"Don't try to spin this into a compliment." Taiga hissed.

"It's good to experience things while you're young." Juri put his arm around Taiga's shoulder. "Let's get going otherwise we might miss history class."

"Not that you'd mind as it is your least favorite class." Kochi pointed out.

"I'd rather face history class than Taiga's anger right now."

"Just wait until we're back at the dorm later, Tanaka Juri."

* * *

Taiga kept pulling off and pushing down Juri on his bed. “IF IT WEREN’T FOR YOU I WOULD HAVE BEEN SPENDING MY SUMMER VACATION IN PEACE! NOW I’LL HAVE TO SPEND A MONTH IN A SHARE HOUSE WITH THREE OTHER PEOPLE I DON’T KNOW!”

“Stop, Taiga. Please.” Juri was more laughing than begging. “Stop it.”

Taiga stopped and tried to catch his breath. It was not easy to do that over and over again, his knees on both sides of Juri supporting his weight. “Juri.” his voice was calmer this time. “I’m just… I’m afraid.”

Juri raised his hand to cup Taiga’s face. "Don't worry, I'll be there with you anyway. It'll just be like the dorms."

The door suddenly opened and Kouchi came in. "Oh I'm sorry. Bad time?" He closed the door behind him immediately, not wanting random eyes to suddenly find Taiga on top of Juri and blowing things out of proportion.

"You have to learn how to knock, Kouchi." Taiga sat down on Juri's bed, his legs arched over Juri's frame.

"Maybe you guys also have to learn to lock the door or not do things that people might misunderstand. Have you even heard the rumors circulating around?" Kouchi plopped on Juri's swivel chair.

"What rumors?" Taiga asked, narrowing his eyes on Juri who raised his hands beside both sides of his face mouthing he knew nothing about it.

“The rumor mills are saying that you two are actually together, that’s why Juri is over protective of you.” Kouchi said as he scrolled through his phone.

“You better do something about that, Juri!” Taiga pinched Juri’s shoulder and Juri whined in pain. “I don’t want to get expelled. This is the only school that offers night classes, damn it!”

“I’m not the one who spread it!” Juri rubbed his shoulder where Taiga pinched him hard.

Kouchi laughed at them. “You don’t have to worry about getting expelled. There’s a ‘protect at all cost’ group whose number one priority is to make sure the university doesn’t find out about your relationship.”

“There’s really nothing to hide in the first place.” Taiga got off of Juri’s bed and transferred to his own. “If you two plan on chatting long I better have a good breakfast tomorrow.” Taiga turned off the lights on his side of the room and turned his back against the two.

“Kouchi, I think it’s better for you to go back. Taiga has stuff in his mind and telling him about the rumors might have added to it.” Juri said in the nicest way he could possibly say it.

“I’m sorry.” Kouchi was apologetic. “I just thought you guys should know.” He stood up from the chair. “Good night to both of you.”

“So you knew?” Taiga said as soon as the door closed.

Taiga’s bed shifted as Juri sat on it, caressing Taiga’s hair. “I didn’t think it was something you needed to concern yourself with so I haven’t told you yet. I was going to, when I’ve settled things.”

“Am I starting to be too much trouble for you?” Taiga reached for Juri’s hand without turning around to face him, he couldn’t face him as he was afraid of what Juri’s answer might be.

Juri chuckled. “Are you serious, right now?” He held Taiga’s hand. “You will never be too much trouble for me, Taiga. Don’t ever think that. You’re the unlucky one getting stuck with just me.”

Taiga shuffled in his bed to finally face Juri. “Anyone will be lucky to have you.”

Juri covered Taiga’s eyes with his hand. “Go to sleep. We have classes tomorrow. Dream of wonderful things.”

Taiga nodded his head. “You should get some rest too.”

* * *

The sound of a strumming guitar woke Hokuto up. The stars and the moon were already out, he checked his watch and it was already 10pm. The night classes have already started. He heard a singing voice along with the guitar, he stood up and walked to the direction where he heard the voice. It made him feel warm despite the cold night breeze on the rooftop. He saw a blond boy playing the guitar while singing at the other end of the building and he just stood there and listened to what seemed like a perfect harmony to his ears. He had never heard of this song before and a rush of emotion came along with it.

The door to the rooftop opened and Hokuto hid behind the wall. Day time students should not be wandering around the campus during the night classes and he did not want to get caught, just imagining how it will blow up if the incoming student council president was caught breaking a university rule was enough to make him nervous. He peeked a little to see if it was a school staff or another student.

A pink haired student was now standing by the blond boy and seemed to have injected him with something. Not wanting to get caught, Hokuto hid behind the wall again when the two other boys turned around.

He sent a message to Jesse asking help on how he could sneak into the dorm as it was already past their curfew. Jesse sent him instructions. Along with Shintaro, Jesse waited for Hokuto in the laundry room. Hokuto went in through the window, lucky for him the surveillance camera in that area was currently scheduled for maintenance. But there was still the surveillance camera at the hall. Shintaro and Jesse pushed Hokuto inside their laundry basket and covered him up with a blanket.

"Where the heck were you, Hokuto?" Jesse asked as soon as he locked the door to their dorm room.

"I just lost track of time." Hokuto stripped off his uniform and changed to his pyjamas. "Maybe we should request for a double-deck bed next year if Shintarou's going to keep sleeping on our floor. After all, they did say the council is allowed to share a room, right?" He climbed into his bed turning his back on Jesse and Shintarou.

* * *

"Wake up!" Hokuto pulled both Jesse's and Shintarou’s blankets off. "We have to get to school early today. The headmaster wants to talk to us."

The two boys groaned in frustration and rolled over and over their beds again before getting up. Shintaro still had his eyes closed and Jesse was scratching his head.

"May I remind both of you that we wouldn't have been in this position if it weren't for your suggestion." Hokuto said while buttoning up his polo.

"No, Hokuto." Jesse stood up and almost dragged his feet to where his towel was. "We wouldn't be in this position if you weren't so popular and trusted. Shin and I only won because we're your running mates."

"Still, Shin was the one who suggested we run in the first place."

"Can we just focus on what's important here?" All their attention turned to Shintarou. "Being in the council has a lot of perks. We get to skip class a lot."

Hokuto groaned. "Just go take a bath already!"

* * *

The headmaster explained to them about his one month planning vacation for the members of the council. He gave them a folder containing documents they needed to read for the preparation for the month long vacation. It was not a full blown vacation as they needed to do planning with the night class student council.

"That's right," Jesse snapped his fingers while they were walking to their classroom. "The day and night classes are given chances to interact with each other during senior year."

"Yes. On days that the council planned activities for them." Hokuto said while opening the door to the classroom with his keys. He was given the master key when he won the election for student council president.

The three of them sat at the three-person table at the back of the room. They flipped through the documents given to them. It was a lot to take in but it’s not like they had a choice, how hard could planning activities really be? They were allowed to leave earlier as long as they got everything needed from them done anyway. Hokuto was just worried about Shintarou and Jesse fooling around too much that they might not make enough time and he was not really familiar with those from the night class so he’d have to get to know them a little on the first few days there.

"Look, the president of the night class is blond and pretty." Jesse pointed at Taiga's photo. "I heard he's pretty popular. Now I know why."

Hokuto flipped his copy to the last page. Could this be the person he heard singing yesterday?

"Hokuto," Shintarou's tone was serious. "Be careful around Tanaka Juri. You too, Jesse, keep your jokes at a minimum at first."

"Why?" Hokuto asked. Looking at the photo of the pink haired boy, maybe these were the two students he saw at the rooftop last night.

"I heard he's very protective when it comes to Kyomoto Taiga. Their president." Shintarou put his copy of the documents inside his bag. "But that's all I know about him. He must be nice since he did win the election."

"Are they like dating or something?" Jesse asked.

"If they were they'd be expelled since they're roommates and that's taboo for the university. You can date boys, girls, anyone so long as it's not your roommate."

"That's why I couldn't make my move on you, Hokuto." Jesse poked at his shoulder. 

"Ha ha ha, Jesse." Hokuto slapped his hand.

"Focus on what's good here." Shintarou raised his feet on the table. "We're exempted from the final exams because of this month long trip. God, I was fearing that guitar final."


	2. Sharehouse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Are you okay?" Juri asked as he sat beside Taiga who was tuning a guitar. "We weren't really told about the room assignment and you ended up with someone you don't know."
> 
> "Matsumura seems nice. We won't be awake at the same time anyway so maybe… I hope at least that things might be fine." Taiga nervously chuckled. “I kind of like him. Like, I ‘d want him as a friend.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2~ they all finally meet at the share house. I hope it still works that I skipped the introductions part and merely mentioned them hanging out together to imply that they were slowly getting to know each other.
> 
> I hope you enjoy what comes next!

Hokuto, Jesse, and Shintaro arrived at the mansion. It was well kept and seemed like one of those mansions you watch on films: the exterior looked like it was made from bricks but inside the walls were much smoother. They left their bags at what seemed to be a reception area of some sort with medieval styled furniture around it and they explored for a little while. There was a greenhouse at the right side filled with various types of flowers, a pool area behind the house could be seen through the window of the reception area, there was a room that had various gaming consoles and games that Shintaro and Jesse requested for, and the kitchen-dining area was spacious enough and well stocked with food.

They moved to the second floor: they found the rooms and apparently rooms were assigned based on what position you held at the council, each room had its own bathroom, at the end of the hall was the door to the library and the three of them swore they have never seen this much book in one place in their lifetime. The music room besides the library had some guitar, a piano, a drumset, and some recording equipment inside, as expected from music students, one of them was bound to request for such things to be provided. They brought in their bags in their respective room and started unpacking.

The night class council was scheduled to arrive in the afternoon almost close to dinner time. Since they arrived first, Hokuto took the initiative of preparing food for now but made a mental note that they should settle food preparation scheduling over dinner when everyone was already here. Jesse and Shintarou already busied themselves playing games at the game room all afternoon. Taiga, Juri, and Kouchi joined Jesse and Shintarou in the game room trying to break the ice as early as now so they wouldn’t be awkward to each other later at dinner.

"Hokuto, the three boys from the night class have arrived. They're unpacking their things and will join us here shortly." Jesse said as he set the table.

The other four were still happy chattering as they walked inside the kitchen.

"I hope you don't mind, I cooked chicken teriyaki." Hokuto said.

"We should be thanking you for taking the initiative to cook for all of us." Taiga answered and flashed him a smile. "Regarding the cooking arrangement. Since we have different body clocks wouldn't it be better for you guys to be in charge of lunch and we will be in charge of breakfast since we're used to being awake from late night to early morning anyway. For dinner, we could do a two person rotation." He suggested as they ate.

The rest of them except for Hokuto nodded, he was thinking if this was a good set-up or if he should suggest something else. Or maybe it was just his pride, he didn’t expect that someone would be talking over talking about things apart from him.

"Ah! Why don't we do the rotation based on our room assignment? The headmaster's point for all this is for us to warm up to each other anyway so we could better facilitate the senior class' activities." Kouchi said as all attention turned to him.

"Are you not afraid of your suggestion?" Shintaro asked. "Have you met Jesse?" He laughed before eating another spoonful of rice.

"Uhm, I just met him a while ago." Kouchi innocently said, a bit of fear was in the tone of his voice.

Jesse laughed out loud. "Be ready for the ride of your life then!"

"We'll try out Kouchi's suggestion regarding the meals for now." Hokuto said.

"Are you sure you're okay with this?" Juri asked Taiga.

Taiga nodded. "My partner seems competent. Eat up, Juri." Taiga fed Juri a spoonful of rice and smiled at him.

Juri and Taiga cleaned up after they were all done eating. Jesse, Kouchi, and Shintaro went to the game room while Hokuto resigned to his room. Hokuto compared their schedules, the night class ran from 8pm to 4am and the day class ran from 9am to 5pm. This meant that their time would only most probably converge around 2pm to 10pm leaving them with not enough time to actually sit down and talk.

Taiga entered the room, he was talking with Juri by the door. Juri's eyes met with Hokuto's and both of them bowed down slightly to acknowledge each other. Juri patted Taiga's head before Taiga closed the door.

"You're still up." Taiga sat as he sat on his bed. "I hope you don't mind, I took this bed. I can't be too close to the window because of the sun." Picked up his small stuffed tiger and placed it on his lap. "I'm Kyomoto Taiga by the way. You're Matsumura Hokuto, right?"

Hokuto nodded. "It's fine actually even if you took that bed. I wanted this one anyway since it's close to the window." Hokuto continued writing in his notebook.

"What are you writing down?" 

"Our schedule. We have a very short time frame where our time converges." Hokuto said. 

"Wow it's the first day and you already jump right into business." Taiga chuckled. "It makes me feel like a slacker."

"I'm sorry." Hokuto did not know how to respond as Taiga looked more amused than offended; he doesn't know if he was kidding or what. He had a feeling that Taiga might be another free spirited one just like Jesse and he briefly wondered if that would be a problem with their planning timetable.

Taiga chuckled. "I'm kidding." He lay on the bed with his arms and legs spread out. "We'll figure it out eventually. Also, since you disappeared all of a sudden I lost the janken game so we will be the ones preparing dinner tomorrow. The rotation will start with the two of us."

Hokuto looked over at Taiga's side. His skin looked even paler in contrast to the black bedsheet covers. Taiga looked delicate and his blond hair suited his face, with his eyes closed he looked peaceful enough you’d think he was already asleep. Taiga looked delicate, Hokuto thought that he’d be fragile and should be handled with care. And he had to admit, Taiga looked so much better in person than in the photo in the file given to them.

"Do you want me to turn off the lights?" Hokuto asked.

"That reminds me. Will you be alright sleeping with a lamp on? Just this one on my side. Since you know, I'm more awake at night when you're asleep. I'll try not to hang around the room too much though."

"If it's just a lamp it will be fine with me. I'll try to keep the lights at a minimum in the morning too."

"Anything's fine with me just… close down the blinds in the morning. I don't… " Taiga was hesitant to continue. "Just the sun and all." He turned so his back was facing Hokuto. "Also, Juri might come over from time to time. But we'll try not to make too much noise."

"You two seem awfully close." Hokuto mumbled his thoughts out loud.

"Of course we are. We've been together since birth."

"Are you guys - " Hokuto was interrupted by a knock on the door.

Juri entered the room. "Taiga, there's a music room by the library. Let's go check it out."

"Sure!" Taiga got up from the bed, excitement evident in his voice as he skipped to the door. "Good night, Matsumura." He said before leaving the room.

Hokuto doesn't know whether Taiga suddenly lit up because of the music room or because Juri came to get him. Either way it was not something he had to know...but somehow he wants to.

* * *

"Are you okay?" Juri asked as he sat beside Taiga who was tuning a guitar. "We weren't really told about the room assignment and you ended up with someone you don't know."

"Matsumura seems nice. We won't be awake at the same time anyway so maybe… I hope at least that things might be fine." Taiga nervously chuckled. “I kind of like him. Like, I ‘d want him as a friend.”

  
  


* * *

Hokuto slowly opened his eyes, anticipating having to readjust to the room's brightness but to his surprise the room was not at all bright. The black window blinds barely let any sunshine inside the room. He turned on the lamp on his side of the room, it was enough for him to walk around and get a set of clothes before taking a shower.

He took his blow dryer with him to the reception area and dried his hair there not wanting to make too much noise to disturb Taiga who was peacefully sleeping in their room. Back in their room, Taiga was fully covered by his bedsheet. Thinking that Taiga must be cold, Hokuto readjusted the temperature of the air conditioner.

At the kitchen, there was really breakfast prepared. Shintaro and Jesse arrived just as Hokuto was about to finish eating.

"You guys look sleepy." Hokuto stirred his coffee.

"We only got up because we were hungry." Jesse yawned and stretched out his arms.

"Those guys from the night class are a whole lot of fun! We stayed up all night playing games in the game room then Jesse and Kyomoto suddenly had an impromptu lyric writing and the song they came up with was hilarious!" Shintaro was very animated as he talked about the things that happened last night.

"That's good you've warmed up to them. It will make it easier to talk about the planning and all."

Jesse groaned. "We only just got here and you're already thinking about serious things. We'll have plenty of time for that."

Shintaro nodded along. "Juri's really easy to get along with, he gets me and also jokes around. Kouchi is fun to talk to as well. Taiga's not at all talkative though."

* * *

"Taiga. It's 4pm. Do you want to eat?"

"Juri," Taiga scrambled out of his blanket. "Have you eaten yet?" He didn't open his eyes yet, reaching out to hold Juri's arm.

Juri shook his head. "I thought I'd wait for you. Do you want to eat first or bathe first?"

"Hhhhhmmmm." Taiga hummed as he thought about iy. "A bath would be nice."

"Go and take a bath first then. Wait for me here, okay?"

Taiga nodded his head. Juri went down to the kitchen, Hokuto was there working on his laptop. Juri turned on the lights before he closed down the blinds, it was the same blinds in every room jet black that almost did not let light from the outside get through.

"Uhm. It's a bit early to turn on the lights, shouldn't we be conserving energy? We're not the ones who will pay the bill after all." Hokuto said as politely as he could. He kind of got the feeling that Juri would be a bit hard to get along with despite what Jesse and Shintaro told him about during breakfast.

"The head teacher knows about this. I talked to him before the trip and I also wrote it down on my request." Juri was hostile in his tone. "Why are you working here anyway?" 

"I was talking with Jesse and Shintaro about activity planning while they were preparing the meal and I never left since no one was using this area anyway."

"Taiga's not good with the sun." Juri walked away without another word.

Somehow, Juri was different from how Jesse and Shintaro talked about him. Hokuto was still at the dining table as the three boys from the night classes ate their meal. He's even more confused now as to what Juri's personality really was as he observes them lightly chatting. Juri's dark mood earlier was nowhere in sight and was even including him in their talk from time to time.

They all reconvened at the reception area to finally hold their first meeting. But before they could get anything done everyone else cracked one joke after another, Jesse was poking fun at Kouchi, Shintaro and Juri spontaneously threw in some jokes, and Taiga was just laughing along with them instead of putting them back in order. Hokuto was trying to moderate them but they were getting nowhere. Taiga noticed that Hokuto was getting frustrated so he tapped Juri's shoulder.

Juri clapped his hands twice. "Alright, alright, guys. Let's get serious here so we could at least get a few steps in this planning."

Everyone paid attention to Juri as he talked and no one was cracking jokes anymore. Hokuto was a bit frustrated with that because Juri only said what he had repeatedly told them but when it was Juri who spoke everyone started to get serious. They were given access to all the documentation of the past senior year activities of the older batches and they arrived at the agreement that they should choose from some of them and restructure them the way they see fit. Juri moderated their talk until the end.

Hokuto and Taiga went to the kitchen after their meeting was over, they were assigned to cook the meal for tonight after all.

"Do you know how to cook?" Hokuto asked as he scanned the ingredients inside the refrigerator.

"A bit, yeah. The ones they teach you during home economics."

Hokuto sighed. He gathered the vegetables he could use for curry. "Just cut these up then. I'll do the rest."

Hokuto measured and washed the rice and got started preparing the miso soup fully trusting Taiga with chopping the ingredients for curry. Which he regretted.

"What are you doing?" Hokuto said as he stopped Taiga. "Oh god." 

Everything was cut unevenly.

"I'm… I'm really bad at this." Taiga admitted. "I've only started to learn how to cook recently."

"I could see that." Hokuto took the knife from Taiga's hand. "Check on the rice and stir the soup instead. I got it from here."

"Okay."

Dinner was much calmer compared to their rowdiness earlier at the reception area. They exchanged stories and agreed to catch a movie later after dinner. Taiga and Hokuto were the last to leave the dining area as they needed to clean up for the rest of them.

At the living room, the four other boys had already decided on what movie to watch. Hokuto ended up sitting at the sofa with Taiga in the middle of him and Juri. Hokuto couldn't focus on the movie too much, he ended up getting distracted by Taiga's reactions. Even through Jesse's loud laughter, Hokuto could hear Taiga's laugh clearly. It was as though his being wanted to focus on Taiga for reasons he doesn't know himself. When the first movie ended, Hokuto decided to go back to his room.

"Hokuto!" Taiga called out for him in the hallway. "It's alright if I call you that, right?"

_ Call me however you want.  _ Hokuto nodded. "What is it?"

Taiga scratched his head. "Were we making you uncomfortable or something?" He bit his lip.

Hokuto stared at Taiga's lip and started shaking his head to clear his thoughts. "No, I - "  _ I'm weirdly attracted to your laugh. _ "I'm just tired."

"Good night then." Taiga smiled at him.

"Good… good night."

Back in their room Hokuto put his hand on his chest. His heart felt to have been beating faster earlier when Taiga smiled at him. It was all he could think about until he fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to share your thoughts~  
> twitter [@geeelatinnn](https://twitter.com/geeelatinnn)  
> curious cat [@geeelatinnn](https://curiouscat.qa/geeelatinnn)  
> or you can leave a comment down below


	3. Secrets and Storms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the next three days, the boys from the night class tried to adjust to the day class' schedule. Juri always went down before the other two to close down the blinds and adjust the temperature of the air conditioning unit. The three of them really tried but it was a struggle: there were times that Kouchi spontaneously drifted to sleep and Taiga sometimes talked with his eyes closed. Hokuto was the only one keeping detailed notes as Kouchi found it hard to keep up with taking down the minutes. 

A week has passed and they were getting nowhere with the planning. It was starting to be a struggle to balance out everyone's schedule. Juri and Hokuto took turns moderating the meetings but with short hours the only thing they were able to sort out was the list of activities. There was still the matter of scheduling, finance, and details of what and how exactly will each activity flow. They even moved from holding the meetings at the reception area to the dining room so that those who were scheduled to make the meal could still participate in the brainstorming.

Hokuto noticed some bandages on Taiga’s jaw. It got him thinking how Taiga could get cuts when Taiga was not really one to move around. But then again, Taiga might have just cut himself shaving or something. A week sharing a room with Taiga and Hokuto was starting to adjust to Taiga’s room temperature preferences as he had noticed that Taiga often changed the temperature of the air conditioning unit in their room when Hokuto was out. 

Hokuto had also noticed that wherever they were, Juri adjusts the temperature of the air conditioning unit to the same temperature Taiga sets theirs. Not that he was one to complain about room temperature, so he just lets it be and he made sure it was always the same in their room as well. There was this time when Hokuto woke up from his sleep in the middle of the night and he saw Juri injecting Taiga with something and taking note of Taiga’s temperature, he observed them in the pretense that he was asleep and heard Juri asking Taiga if he was feeling anything out of the ordinary. It got Hokuto curious if Taiga was sick or something.

After their meeting, Hokuto took his laptop to his room before dinner. Juri was outside of the room, leaning on the wall when he came out.

"Hokuto." Juri said as Hokuto closed the door. His voice was low, different from how it usually sounds when they were with everyone else. "Please don't forget to close the blinds in your room." It sounded more of a threat than a request. Juri walked back to the dining room.

Hokuto was left standing by his door. It was true that he had forgotten to close the blinds for three days now after he looked outside but it was only left open from the time he woke up to the time he finished taking a bath then he'll close it up. So how did Juri know about it? Maybe Taiga asked him to say it, but for what reason? Hokuto would like to think he and Taiga were able to break their ice for the past days enough for Taiga to say something about their room arrangement. They were chatting up in their room from time to time about things apart from university lately that Hokuto would like to think that they were getting closer.

Juri was his usual self in the dining room, casually conversing with everyone else. They all hang around the dining area while Kouchi and Shintaro cleaned up. Hokuto brought up the idea that they should try to adjust to each other’s time frame at least two days per week: three days with the morning class’ schedule, a rest day, and then three days in the night class’ schedule. They all tried to work out the time and it seemed like a feasible idea.

"We'll try to get up earlier tomorrow." Taiga said.

"Taiga."

Taiga tapped Juri's shoulder. "It's okay, Juri. Let's just try. We'll talk about it again once we've tried it out."

* * *

For the next three days, the boys from the night class tried to adjust to the day class' schedule. Juri always went down before the other two to close down the blinds and adjust the temperature of the air conditioning unit. The three of them really tried but it was a struggle: there were times that Kouchi spontaneously drifted to sleep and Taiga sometimes talked with his eyes closed. Hokuto was the only one keeping detailed notes as Kouchi found it hard to keep up with taking down the minutes. 

Taiga had asked Hokuto to wake him up for the next three days and Hokuto noticed that Taiga would sometimes take hurried breaths before getting up from the bed. 

The weather announcement said that they should expect heavy rains tomorrow.

"We should take a rest tomorrow." Juri suggested. "Clearly these three days took a toll on us. We wouldn't want to be selfish here but maybe we should work on a different schedule."

"What do you have in mind?" Hokuto asked.

"On Mondays, we'll work following the schedule of the day class. Thursdays, we'll work on the schedule of the night class."

"What about the other days then?" Hokuto took down notes about the schedule.

"Let's try the 4pm to 7pm schedule again for the other days. We could work on proposals on our own time and finalize things together." Juri had this way of talking that is not too bossy but at the same time you’d want to do whatever it is that he says as he said it in a way that makes it sound like the best option. The others agreed to him almost immediately.

Hokuto nodded along. "Let's try to see if it will work then. Tomorrow's a Friday, we could all use some rest as it is our supposed summer vacation. Let's reconvene Monday then.”

* * *

Just as the weather forecast said, it started raining around noon time. Hokuto spent much of his morning at the library, the book selection fascinated him and he did want to get some reading done this summer. The library was a good place for him and because of the vast selection of books there he took note of the books that he liked and could quite possibly be useful to him. After having lunch he went back to his room. Juri was there, seated on Taiga’s bed beside Taiga who was still under his blanket. Juri was scrolling on his phone paying no attention to Hokuto.

Hokuto's eyes were a bit tired so he decided to take a nap and went under his blanket, turning his back on Juri and Taiga.

The loud sounds of thunder woke Hokuto up. Taiga was standing by the window, blinds rolled up, his hand was planted on the window as he stared outside. Hokuto got off his bed and walked towards Taiga, it was like a magnetic force was pulling him closer to Taiga.

"Kyomoto." Hokuto called him when he was standing by his side.

Taiga turned to face Hokuto. His eyes seemed different from how Hokuto remembered them, they were always bright for him but now they just look...empty. Taiga's hand fell to his side, he took two steps until he was standing face to face with Hokuto. Taiga smirked at him and all of a sudden leaned in to kiss Hokuto’s lips.

Hokuto stood there stunned, eyes wide open. He did not know how to react. Until, Taiga suddenly fell and he had to catch him in his arms. The next thing he heard was the sound of the door closing.

"Nice catch." Juri was by the door. He walked towards Hokuto and gently took Taiga from Hokuto’s arms. He tucked Taiga back to his bed and under the blanket. "Don't read too much into it. Taiga will not remember it tomorrow. It's better not to talk about what happened."

Hokuto nodded, more out of fear than understanding. He went back to his own bed and tried to go back to sleep.

* * *

The rain was not stopping yet, it poured down harder Saturday morning. Juri asked Hokuto if it was alright that he was staying in their room and Hokuto said he was fine with it. Not that you'd notice having three people in the room as Juri hardly ever moved and was only scrolling through his phone while Taiga was not even getting up from bed at all.

Jesse and Shintaro were looking forward to playing at the pool but settled for the game room instead because it doesn't seem that the rain will stop anytime soon. Hokuto joined the other two in the game room to give Juri and Taiga some privacy but when the two got too excited while playing and were too loud he decided to resign to the kitchen and cook the meal for the day.

Kochi was yawning as he walked to the kitchen. "Matsumura, good morning? Afternoon? Ah! What did you cook?"

"Rice bowls instead of the usual meal we have here. And you may address me as Hokuto. Hope you like gyudon."

Kochi nodded. "That's good. I won't have a hard time bringing those up to the game room."

"I figured as much as Jesse and Shintaro will stay hauled up there. I guess you are their victim who has to bring these up to them." Hokuto put down a tray with three rice bowls and slid it over to Kochi.

"Are those for Juri and Taiga?" Kouchi asked as he got enough utensils for the three of them.

"I think Kyomoto's feeling under the weather right now so maybe it's best he stays in the room."

"Thank you for being considerate of them. It's good this happened on a weekend. Taiga's no good when there's a storm."

"I thought it was the sun."

"It's complicated." Kochi took the tray and walked out of the kitchen.

Juri was asleep when Hokuto entered the room. Taiga was still under the blanket. Hokuto left the tray with the two rice bowls on the table near the door and took his food to the game room. After they all ate the laughter got louder and Hokuto decided to read a book at the library instead.

He set the lights of the first floor of the library on dim, just enough for him to see the stairs leading to the second floor. At the far right of the 2nd floor of the library was a desk with a small lamp, no one would actually think anyone was there reading as there were a couple of bookshelves hiding it. Hokuto found a book that caught his interest and started reading on the desk. The rain outside was getting stronger and the thunder was even louder.

* * *

Hokuto didn't notice that he had drifted off to sleep. The rain outside was still pouring hard and there was an occasional sound of thunder. He put back the book where he got it. As he came down the stairs he noticed that the door was slightly ajar when he clearly remembered closing it properly. He heard some faint noises and his feet started moving towards the direction of the noise.

His eyes grew wide at what he saw, at the end of the last bookshelf was Juri and Taiga. Juri's hands were firmly planted on top of the cabinet behind him, Taiga's arm was around Juri’s hips and his other hand had a fistful of Juri's hair. The two of them were kissing..

Juri opened his eyes, Hokuto's eyes met with Juri's when Taiga moved down to kissing Juri's neck. Hokuto took a step back and he swears he saw Juri smirk at him before Taiga caught his lips again. Hokuto walked away, making as little noise as possible.

If the school finds out about those two they would be expelled. And if that happens, Juri will blame Hokuto as he was the one who saw them and will be a prime suspect for ratting them out. His heart was beating wildly, somehow he felt hurt. But why? Not knowing what to do he laid down on his bed.

When he heard the door open, he slightly opened his eyes, pretending to be asleep. Juri came in with Taiga passed out in his arms, he tucked him down on his bed and turned off the lamp beside it.

"Hokuto." Juri said as he stood by the door.

Hokuto did not answer, how the hell did Juri even notice that he was awake? Or was it a trick to see if he was? Still, Hokuto decided not to respond.

"Taiga will have no memory of this. It's best you never bring it up." Juri left the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To which Hokuto is just as confused as we are.
> 
> thoughts?  
> twitter [@geeelatinnn](https://twitter.com/geeelatinnn)  
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> or you can leave a comment down below


	4. Innocence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hokuto doesn't know what to say, he was focused on Taiga's reaction. He looked absolutely amused, innocent, happy, and bright like a kid who was just given a pack of his favorite candy. He couldn't piece together how this is the same person who kissed both him and Juri in one weekend.

"Taiga won't be joining us today." Juri said as he pulled one of the chairs to sit down. "But I have his suggestions right here."

Finally, after three weeks they were all able to settle with three activities: a talent show, an art show, and the annual seniors' dance. Kouchi and Shintaro worked on drafting the timelines for each while the rest of them listed down the things they need to canvass prices for in preparation for making the budget proposal. It wouldn't be a problem since the school was loaded and most if not all students came from elite families.

"Ah that reminds me," Juri said after they were done with dinner. "The head teacher is sending a car for us tomorrow. Since it is only Monday, we have three weeks left to stay here so he thought we might need to buy more supplies."

"Are we spending out of our own pockets?" Shintaro asked as he wolfed down an apple.

Juri shook his head. "The head teacher said he'll leave the card with the driver and we were free to spend however much we wanted."

Jesse clapped his hand. "That's good. I have a feeling Hokuto's still going to make us work more for the planning we're going to need more food."

Hokuto didn't complain at all since he knew he was going to work them all out to the bone for this planning, if he didn't they wouldn't be able to arrive at anything. After dinner, Hokuto returned to his room. Taiga was seated up on the bed, strumming his guitar. It sounded the same as what he heard on the rooftop, Hokuto thought maybe it was Taiga singing that day.

"Ah, you're back." Taiga smiled at him. "I hope you don't mind. I'll stop if you're going to bed."

"Ah, no, it's okay. I was going to take a shower."

Hokuto could hear the playing of the guitar even inside the bathroom. He could hear Taiga's singing too but not as loud. When he came out, Taiga was writing down something in a notebook.

"Wow I wish I had your confidence to walk around the room half naked."

"I'm sorry." Hokuto took the first shirt he saw in his dresser and wore it 

Taiga chuckled. "I'm kidding. You look cute all flustered like that, glad to know you have other sides apart from the serious straight A student front."

"Why, do you want to know more about me?" Hokuto sat on his own bed with his back turned against Taiga.

"I've heard a lot about you from Jesse and Shintaro. And I think you're interesting. It might be good to hear you open up and stuff. We have been talking a lot with each other lately too so I feel like we are getting a bit closer. Maybe it’s just me."

Hokuto flushed at the thought that Taiga wanted to get to know him better. It was good he had his back turned to Taiga, it would be embarrassing for him to see him flush all of a sudden.

"Jesse said you sing? Would you like to try to harmonize with me? I wrote a new song."

"Sure." Hokuto turned to the other side of this bed to face Taiga's side and Taiga handed him a notebook with the chords and lyrics.

Hokuto was closely looking at Taiga as he played his guitar, he looked so different from the person who kissed him last Friday. Taiga looked warm and bright for Hokuto and hearing his voice up close gave him goosebumps he almost missed his cue to enter the song. Somehow, with their voice mixed in together, it felt complete. It was as though this was how the song was supposed to be.

"Wow. We sounded good."

Hokuto doesn't know what to say, he was focused on Taiga's reaction. He looked absolutely amused, innocent, happy, and bright like a kid who was just given a pack of his favorite candy. He couldn't piece together how this is the same person who kissed both him and Juri in one weekend.

Taiga snapped his fingers in front of Hokuto. "Were you sleeping with your eyes open or were you daydreaming?"

_ Thinking of you actually. _ "I was just thinking we sounded well too. You more than me, honestly."

"Maybe it's our destiny to sing together." Taiga said and made Hokuto blush. "Cute. You're blushing." He chuckled.

"Kyomoto. About this weekend." Hokuto was hesitant to continue.

"Ah, sorry about that." Taiga was placing back the guitar in its case. "I seem to have blacked out for three days straight. I think I might have even lost weight." He tapped on his stomach. “I’m still a bit tired though so Juri told me to rest for now and he’ll take care of the planning and stuff.

"Do you not remember anything?"

Taiga shook his head. "But Juri said I was just in bed those three days. Maybe that's why my body is sore all over."

There was a knock on the door before Juri entered. "Taiga, what would you like to eat?"

"Something warm. Hold up, I'm coming with you." Taiga placed the guitar under his bed. "Good night, Hokuto."

* * *

Juri knocked on their door before entering the room. Hokuto was seated on his bed while scrolling on his phone. The faint sound of the shower and Taiga’s singing voice could be heard in the bedroom.

“Hokuto, sit with us at the back of the car. Taiga might not be able to handle Jesse’s or Shintaro’s energy.”

Hokuto looked at the time, it was 1pm and normally Taiga would still be asleep at this hour. “They could be a real handful sometimes. But why are we leaving this early anyway?”

“It takes four hours before we reach the nearest supermarket from here. Taiga will probably sleep on the ride there.”

“The hell I am!” A pissed off Taiga came out of the bathroom while drying his hair with a towel. “Juri~ I might sleep on your shoulders. Hokuto’s a good height too so I might fall asleep on his shoulder. There’s a 50-50 chance of things happening.”

Taiga’s skin looked even paler in contrast to his all black ensemble. Juri was putting some sort of cream on Taiga’s face and the latter was making all sorts of different faces which Hokuto found adorable. It was not even that cold but Taiga was still wearing a black hoodie and even wore black sunglasses as they walked from the front door of the house towards the car. As they agreed on, Hokuto sat at the back of the car with Taiga in between him and Juri. Just as they expected, Taiga did fall asleep.

Hokuto stiffened when Taiga’s head fell on his shoulder, Juri was already hostile towards him when it was just the two of them he didn't want to add things up and make the situation even worse for him.

“Relax, Hokuto. Taiga won’t bite or drool on you.” Juri was scrolling on his phone. “I’m sorry if I seem hostile sometimes. You might have heard about it, about me being over protective of Taiga. It’s true, though, I won’t deny it. Just don’t ask why.”

When they got to the supermarket they divided into two groups. Of course, Jesse and Shintaro dragged Kochi with them fully knowing that if they went with Hokuto they wouldn’t be able to buy the snacks they wanted because Hokuto would take a long time at the cold cuts and meat section of the supermarket. Juri and Taiga agreed to the arrangement and Hokuto couldn’t help but think that maybe they agreed because he already knew their secret.

Hokuto’s attention was always drawn to Taiga’s little reactions, it was like he had just brought an innocent boy out to do the grocery for the first time. Taiga was easily fascinated by everything around him but never strayed away too far from either Hokuto or Juri.

“Juri, maybe we should get a lot of tomatoes this time.” Hokuto suggested while they were in the vegetable section. “We ran out of tomatoes really fast compared to other vegetables.”

Taiga snickered and looked away. 

“And the prime suspect for that is here with us. He’s probably hiding the fact that he’s happy hearing we will stock more tomatoes this time.” Juri’s phone started to ring. “I’m sorry, I have to get this.”

Hokuto pushed the cart towards the meat section. He did not look back to check on Taiga as he thinks the latter is old enough to know what to do. Juri spotted Hokuto from a distance and walked back to him.

“Where’s Taiga?”

“He’s right - ” When Hokuto looked behind him, Taiga was nowhere to be found. “I’m sorry, I thought he was following me.”

The two of them walked back to look for Taiga and found him standing in the middle of the vegetable section.

“Juri~” Taiga called out and waved his hand as soon as he saw them.

“Why are you standing around here? Why didn’t you follow Hokuto?”

Taiga was bumping his index finger with each other, not making eye contact with either Hokuto or Juri. “I was going to follow Hokuto but there was a kid who held onto me, he was lost so I kept him company as we waited for his mother to come back. And then, Hokuto was gone. I thought if I’d stay here it will be easier for you guys to find me. And well, you always do find me when I’m lost Juri so I was not at all worried about it.”

“You can be such a child sometimes.” Juri ruffled Taiga’s hair. “Let’s go finish this up. I’m sure you’re getting tired.”

On the ride back to their sharehouse, Taiga fell asleep on Hokuto’s shoulder again.


	5. Still in the Dark

"Finally!" Jesse shouted as loudly as he could with his arms stretched up. "I thought this would never end."

"Not to burst your bubble, Jesse, but we still need approval from the head teacher. We might not be done yet."

"Just press send on the email already, Hokuto." Shintaro impatiently tapped his fingers impatiently on the table.

"The timeline. Program. Budget proposal. Guidelines for each activity." Hokuto checked if all attachments were there before sending the email. "Alright, it's sent."

"So we have four days left here before the car picks us up on Monday. And," Shintaro checked the weather forecast. "Well, the weather forecast is not looking good but we still haven’t conquered some of the dungeons on the game we are playing so maybe we should focus on that."

"Nice." Jesse clapped his hands. "Kouchi, you can catch up on sleep some other time. Come and play with us tomorrow!"

"Wouldn't you two need to sleep as well?" Kochi waved his finger between Jesse and Shintaro.

"Well, we still do have four days left." Shintaro said.

"Just like I told you guys," Hokuto tapped the table. "It's still up for approval."

"The head teacher already replied and approved everything." Taiga turned his laptop so that it would face Hokuto. "Yes!" Taiga raised his arms up in the air. "We can finally relax for the next four days!" Taiga clapped his hands before turning off his laptop.

In the middle of them discussing how to spend the next few days together and having dinner there were suddenly bursts of thunder. Jesse opened up one of the blinds, it was starting to rain hard outside.

“Juri.” Taiga spoke in a low voice, his mood suddenly shifted from being excited to being worried. “I’m not feeling that good.”

Juri took his hand and gave it a light squeeze. “I’ll come see you after I clean up here.” Juri looked over at Hokuto.

Hokuto nodded in response without Juri having to say anything, he knew he was going to ask to stay in their room again for now. Taiga left the dining room before anyone else, Hokuto followed him not soon after as Juri asked him to follow up on Taiga while he was still cleaning up.

Taiga was standing by the window again, the blinds rolled up. Hokuto closed the door gently and approached Taiga.

“Kyomoto, maybe it’s better if you lie down.” Hokuto waited for a response but there was nothing, Taiga just kept staring outside. “Kyomoto.” He tried to get his attention again, he was feeling something a bit off with Taiga again. It was as though he was exerting a different aura around him.

Taiga turned to face him, his eyes were dark, and he took a step to close the gap between him and Hokuto. Everytime Taiga took a step forward, Hokuto took a step back. The rain outside was pouring hard and once in a while there was thunder. Hokuto’s eyes were locked on Taiga’s.

Taiga snickered. “Why are you walking away, Hokuto?” He raised his eyebrow. “I know you’re in love with me. I see the way you look at me so there’s no use denying it.” Taiga caressed Hokuto’s face and ran his hand down to his chest.

Hokuto was stunned, him in love? He might be, but he was not sure if it was love that makes him always pay attention to Taiga. And this person in front of him now, it seemed like a totally different person. Taiga pinned him down on his bed, Hokuto did not expect Taiga to be this strong. Taiga leaned down and captured Hokuto’s lips in his, it started out soft and gradually Taiga was getting rough. He ran his tongue over Hokuto’s lips and he parted them open, Taiga’s tongue exploring his mouth was sending Hokuto’s body in a frenzy. It was a feeling Hokuto has never had before, but somehow part of him was thinking this was all wrong. Still, he couldn’t stop Taiga, he couldn’t stop him as his body and his brain were saying different things. Taiga held him down by his wrist. The door opened making Taiga pull out of the kiss.

“Juri.” A smile spread on Taiga’s face but he was still not getting off of Hokuto.

Juri locked the door and secured the latch on it before walking over to Hokuto’s bed. Juri was kneeling by Hokuto and Taiga’s side. Taiga pulled Juri over and kissed him roughly, unbuttoning Juri’s shirt while doing so. A loud thunder struck and then Taiga fell down, Juri was able to catch him in his arms. Juri carried Taiga over to the empty bed, Hokuto was even more confused now and couldn’t move from his position.

“Taiga seems to trust you.” Juri broke the silence between them. “But it will be best for you not to get involved too much. I already asked the head teacher for a car tomorrow, Taiga and I will be leaving first in the pretense of him getting sick.”

“Juri, I - ”

Hokuto was cut off when Juri captured his lips forcing some sort of liquid down Hokuto’s throat and he fell down on his bed.

* * *

Hokuto never heard from Juri or Taiga since their last day at the sharehouse. Both of them were not replying to his messages, he did not take it much to heart as they weren’t really close to begin with but he wanted to know if Taiga was alright. A month has passed since then, today the councils were supposed to meet for the opening ceremony program for the senior class. To say that Hokuto was looking forward to this was an understatement, he was both happy and nervous.

When he entered the council room, only Jesse and Shintaro were there. A few minutes later, Kouchi entered the room followed by two unfamiliar faces. Kouchi sat at the chair opposite Hokuto and Hokuto noticed that Kouchi had the president’s badge pinned on his collar but he clearly remembers that Taiga was the president of the night class’ council.

Kouchi introduced the other two students with him. “They will be with me on the council starting today. Let’s get started then.”

Hokuto wanted to ask about Juri and Taiga but Kouchi left as soon as they were done discussing the opening ceremony. Kouchi was acting weird the whole time, it was as if they didn’t know each other at all. Even Jesse and Shintaro were talking about the change they noticed in Kouchi as the three grew close over the span of their stay in the sharehouse, they couldn’t understand why Kouchi wasn’t laughing when they tried to make the meeting a little lighter with jokes. Hokuto dialed Juri’s number.

_ The number you are calling is temporarily out of service. _

He tried again.

_ The number you are calling is temporarily out of service. _

He tried Taiga’s next. It was ringing, but that was it. It kept on ringing until Hokuto was redirected to voicemail. He tried again but for all his three attempts he was just redirected to voicemail. Hokuto suddenly heard a loud piercing noise that made him close his eyes.

Hokuto woke up inside their dorm room.

**Author's Note:**

> Sharing a house for a month with people you don't really know? Will this mean trouble?
> 
> Thank you very much for taking time to read this!
> 
> I would love to hear your thoughts, comments, suggestions, or maybe a request you can hit me up at:  
> twitter [@geeelatinnn](https://twitter.com/geeelatinnn)  
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